Cutdown to 75 Had Some Surprises

It was cutdown day in the NFL when all 32 teams had to get down to 75 and end of the day there were a few surprising moves by the Packers.

Hometown Boy Peter Mortell Was Living The Dream Until Monday - His Grandfather Hunting With Vince Lombardi And With His Dad At Lambeau Field

First, General Manager Ted Thompson cut Green Bay native Peter Mortell. I thought Mortell had won the battle with Tim Masthay for the punting job. He seemed to be a gamer and I was ready to move on from Masthay, who has been mired in a year and a half slump. But what do I know?

Who Blinks First?

Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers and the rest of the "Al Jazeera 4" as they are now known have been given an ultimatum by the NFL to either summit to an interview or face an indefinite suspension until they sit down and discuss whether they are guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs or PEDs as they are known.

 

 Side note: For those of you who live in Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis the name refers back to 1968 and the "Chicago 7", who were peace activists who were put on trial for inciting a riot during the Democratic Convention.

 

In a Donald J. Trump world and working in Wisconsin for that matter it's bad enough to be lumped in with Islamic terrorists or terrorist-sympathizing scum with the name Al Jazeera attached permanently to your picture. The only thing worse would be if your middle name is Hussein.

Defense A Work In Progress

Holding the Cleveland Browns to 11 points was a bit of an illusion. Actually the Packers could have lost the game if the touchdown pass in the second quarter had counted. What I saw didn't look good as far as the starters were concerned.



Defensively it was sadly same old, same old. First: Missed tackles. Second: Busted plays resulting in long gains. Third: Being suckered into being out of position on outside containment resulting in long gains, especially the left side. Four: Only two passes defensed on 23 pass attempts. NOT GOOD.

 

Dean Lowry (#94) Has Jumped Ahead Of No. 1 Pick Kenny Clark

The defensive scheme was basically a 2-4-5 most of the game after starting the game in a 3-4-4. The official starting unit was #4 pick Dean Lowry at left end, Letroy Guion at nose tackle and Mike Daniels at right defensive tackle. I hope you notice there is no right defensive end in Dom Capers' scheme, but 2 interior linemen.

 

Offense Wasn't Bad in First Game

The Packers opened the season with a 17-11 win over the Super Bowl contending Cleveland Browns and many will say it was a good start for many reasons.

 

I will agree in this respect. It is surely (and don't call me Shirley) better to win than lose, but there were several disturbing trends, which don't bode well for the upcoming season.

 

First, I didn't like Aaron Rodgers sitting this one out. The Packer offense was dysfunctional last year and Rodgers had a terrible season by his high standards. Everyone on the offense needs to play every game and Rodgers was the only offensive starter that wasn't injured that didn't play.

 

The Black Hole of Brown County

The Black Hole of Brown County Doesn't Look So Black Unless You Want News from 1265 Lombardi Avenue

I had hoped my campaign for the firing of General Manager Ted Thompson and now President Mark Murphy would be gaining steam, but I sincerely doubt it, so enough of unattainable missions, including winning a Super Bowl before the 2019 season and back to the real world outside of the Green Bay Packers Front Office or what is commonly known as the Black Hole of Brown County because information goes in and none comes out.